Cover not available

In:Linguistic Landscape in the Spanish-speaking World
Edited by Patricia Gubitosi and Michelle F. Ramos Pellicia
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 35] 2021
► pp. 105–132

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 4
Ideologies in the linguistic landscape

The semiotic construction of the Puerto Rican identity

 | Roanoke College
 | University of Massachusetts Amherst
Published online: 29 July 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.35.04ari
Abstract
Linguistic Landscape (LL) research is a useful tool to uncover language ideologies related to the construction of ethnic identities within a public space. Language in the public space may reflect the sociopolitical encounters and differences that exist within a community and need to be contemplated as part of the larger view of the linguistic behavior of the society. The present chapter focuses on Puerto Rico, a nation where English and Spanish signage share the same space and where there is a long-running discussion on Puerto Rican identity. This chapter aims to examine how Puerto Ricans living on the island perceive their LL and what the place of its flag is in the ongoing discussion of identity in the public arena.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Sociopolitical context: Puerto Rican political status
  • Language ideologies in the Linguistic Landscape
  • Semiotic landscape
  • The Puerto Rican flag as part of the spatial repertoires in the Puerto Rican LL
  • Puerto Rican flag-variants and symbolism
  • Objectives and research questions
  • Methodology
    • Survey and questions
    • Participants
    • Analysis
  • Results and discussion
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (66)
References
Álvarez Nazario, M. (2015). Language, sign of Puerto Ricanness. Enciclopedia de Puerto Rico. National Endowment for the Humanities.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anderson, B. (1991 [1983]). Imagined communities. Reflection on the origin and spread of nationalism. Verso.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aronin, L., & Singleton, D. (2012). Multilingualism. John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ayala, C., & Bernabe, R. (2009). Puerto Rico in the American century: A history since 1898. University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Backhaus, P. (2007). Linguistic landscapes. A comparative study of urban multilingualism in Tokyo. Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Benedict, A., & Kent, R. B. (2004). The cultural landscape of a Puerto Rican neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio. In D. D. Arreola (Ed.), Hispanic spaces, Latino places: Community and cultural diversity in contemporary America. University of Texas Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ben-Rafael, E., Shohamy, E., Amara, M. H., & Trumper-Hecht, N. (2006). The symbolic construction of the public space: The case of Israel. International Journal of Multilingualism, 3(1), 7–31. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blommaert, J. (2010). Sociolinguistics of globalization. Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2013). Ethnography, superdiversity and linguistic landscapes. Chronicles of complexities. Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bradley, J., Moore, E., & Simpson, J. (2020). Translanguaging as transformation: The collaborative construction of new linguistic realities. Introduction. In E. Moore, J. Bradley, & J. Simpson (Eds.), Translanguaging as transformation: The collaborative construction of new linguistic realities (pp. 1–12). Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cabán, P. (2002). Puerto Rico: State formation in a colonial context. Caribbean Studies, 30(2), 170–215.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2018). PROMESA, Puerto Rico and the American empire. Latino Studies, 16(2), 161–184. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Canagarajah, S. (2013). Introduction. In S. Canagarajah (Ed.), Literacy as translingual practice: Between communities and classrooms (pp. 1–10). Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carrión, J. M. (2006). The war of the flags: Conflicting national loyalties in a modern colonial situation. Centro Journal, 18(2), 101–123.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carroll, K. S. (2008). Puerto Rican language use on MySpace.com. Centro Journal 20(1), 97–111.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2016). Understanding perceptions of language threat: The case of Puerto Rico. Caribbean Studies, 44(1/2), 167–186. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Comisión estatal de elecciones de Puerto Rico. (2017). Informe estadístico elecciones generales, 8 de noviembre de 2016. San Juan, PR. Retrieved on 18 January, 2021 from: [URL]
Dávila, A. M. (1997). Sponsored identities. Cultural politics in Puerto Rico. Temple University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Onís, C. M. (2018). Fueling and delinking from energy coloniality in Puerto Rico. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 46(5), 535–560. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Duany, J. (2000). Nation on the move: The construction of cultural identities in Puerto Rico and the diaspora. American Ethnologist, 27(1), 5–30. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Duchesne-Winter, J. (2008). National identity politics in Puerto Rico. Beyond the binational colonial state. ReVista 7(3), 12–14.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ecured. (2011). Los símbolos de Cuba. CNICM – Centro Nacional de Información de Ciencias Médicas-Infomed. Retrieved on 18 January, 2021 from: [URL]
Evans, J. D. (1996). Straightforward statistics for the behavioral sciences. Brooks/Cole Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Franco-Rodríguez, J. (2018). Spanish in linguistic landscapes of the U.S. In K. Potowski (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of Spanish as a heritage language (pp. 66–77). Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fuchs, C. (2019). Henri Lefebvre’s theory of the production of space and the critical theory of communication. Communication Theory 29, 129–150. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Garcia, I. (2018). Symbolism, collective identity, and community development. Societies 8(81), 1–13. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
García, O., & Wei, L. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism, and education. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
García Zambrana, I. (2015). The Puerto Rican identity: Reconstructing ownership in the face of change (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Retrieved on 18 January, 2021 from the University of Illinois at Chicago Library. [URL]
Garriga-López, A. (2019). Puerto Rico: The future in question. Shima 13(2), 174–192. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Garvin, R. (2010). Responses to the linguistic landscape in Memphis, Tennessee: An urban space in transition. In E. Shohamy, E. Ben-Rafael, & M. Barni (Eds.), Linguistic landscape in the city (pp. 252–271). Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gasier, L., & Matras, Y. (2016). The spatial construction of civic identities: A study of Manchester’s linguistic landscapes. University of Manchester.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grosfoguel, R. (2008). Recolonization or decolonization? The neocolonial project of the United States in Puerto Rico. ReVista 7(3), 3–7.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gubitosi, P., Puma, C., & Narváez, D. (2020). Landscaping an Ecuadorian neighborhood in Queens, NY. Cuadernos de Lingüística Hispánica, 36, 211–234. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hill, J. (2008). The everyday language of white racism. Wiley-Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Irvine, J. (1989). When talk isn’t cheap: Language and political economy. American Ethnologist, 16(2), 248–267. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jaworski, A. & Thurlow, C. (Eds). (2010). Semiotic landscapes. Language, image, space. Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koskrity, P. (2000). Regimenting languages: Language ideological perspectives. In P. Koskrity (Ed.), Regimes of languages, polities and identities (pp. 1–34). School of American Research Advanced Seminar Series, Santa Fe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lado, B. (2011). Linguistic landscape as a reflection of the linguistic and ideological conflict in the Valencian community. International Journal of Multilingualism 8(2), 135–150. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Landry, R., & Bourhis, R. (1997). Linguistic landscape and ethnolinguistic vitality: An empirical study. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 16(1), 23–49. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leeman, J., & Modan, G. (2009). Commodified language in Chinatown: A contextualized approach to linguistic landscape. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 13(3), 332–362. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lefevre, H. (1991) [1974]. The production of space. Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leon, S. (2020). Puerto Rico stands in solidarity with Black Lives Matter Movement and LGBTQ community. PantherNow. Retrieved on 18 January, 2021 from: [URL]
Lewis, G. K. (1963). Puerto Rico: Freedom and power in the Caribbean. Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lou, J. (2016). The linguistic landscape of Chinatown: A sociolinguistic ethnography. Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Maldonado-Valentín, M. (2016). An exploration of the effects of language policy in education in a contemporary Puerto Rican society. Education Policy Analysis Archives 24(85). Retrieved on 18 January, 2021 from: [URL].
Malinowski, D. (2009). Authorship in the linguistic landscape. A multimodal performative view. In E. Shohamy & D. Gorter (Eds), Linguistic landscapes: Expanding the scenery (pp. 302–312). Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2019). Learning to translate the linguistic landscape. In M. Pütz & N. Mundt (Eds.), Expanding the linguistic landscape. Linguistic diversity, multimodality and the use of space as a semiotic resource (pp. 58–71). Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martí Carvajal, A. J. (2016). Rectificaciones históricas: Sobre LAS BANDERAS de Cuba y Puerto Rico. Akelarre: Historia y ficción. Retrieved on 18 January, 2021 from: [URL]
Merced, J. N. (2017). Painting identity and resistance. Muralism in Puerto Rico (Master essay). Simon Fraser University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morris, N. (1995). Puerto Rico: Culture, politics, and identity. Praeger.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nichols, L. (2019). Our own monument: Landscape in the linguistic others of Quebec and Puerto Rico. American Review of Canadian Studies, 49(3), 449–463. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pennycook, A. (2017). Translanguaging and semiotic assemblages. International Journal of Multilingualism, 14(3), 269–282. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2019). Linguistic landscapes and semiotic assemblages. In M. Pütz & N. Mundt (Eds.), Expanding the linguistic landscape. Linguistic diversity, multimodality and the use of space as a semiotic resource (pp. 75–88). Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pérez Moris, J., & Cueto y González Quijano, L. (1872). Historia de la insurrección de Lares, precedida de una reseña de los trabajos separatistas que se vienen haciendo en la isla de Puerto-Rico desde la emancipación de las demás posesiones hispano-ultramarinas, y seguida de todos los documentos á ella referentes. N. Ramirez y ca.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Perez-Rivera, D. T., Torres-Lugo, C., & Santos-Lozada, A. R. (2019). Engaging for Puerto Rico: #RickyRenuncia (and #RickySeQueda) during El Verano del 19 and digital identities. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Philips, S. (2018). Languages ideologies. In D. Tannen, H. Hamilton, & D. Schiffrin (Eds.), The handbook of discourse analysis (2nd ed., pp. 557–575). Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pütz, M., & Mundt, N. (2019). Multilingualism, multimodality and methodology: Linguistic landscape research in the context of assemblages, ideologies and (in)visibility: An introduction. In M. Pütz & N. Mundt (Eds.), Expanding the linguistic landscape. Linguistic diversity, multimodality and the use of space as a semiotic resource (pp. 1–22). Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ramos, M. (2019). El PNP mató la estadidad. El Vocero de Puerto Rico, 2nd August. Retrieved on 18 January, 2021 from: [URL]
Schmidt-Nieto, J. R. (2014). The politics of English in Puerto Rico’s public schools. First Forum Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scollon, R., & Scollon, S. W. (2003). Discourses in place: Language in the material world. Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shohamy, E. (2006). Language policy: Hidden agendas and new approaches. Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stroud, C., & Mpendukana, S. (2009). Towards a material ethnography of linguistic landscape: Multilingualism, mobility and space in a South African township. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 13(3), 363–386. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Torres, A. (1998). La gran familia puertorriqueña “Ej prieta de beldá” (The great Puerto Rican family is really really Black). In N. E. Whitten Jr. & A. Torres (Eds.), Blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean, 2, (pp. 285–306). Indiana University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zukin, S. (1991). Landscapes of power: From Detroit to Disney World. University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (4)

Cited by four other publications

Arias Álvarez, Alba & Sheryl Bernardo-Hinesley
2024. Language contact, identity building and attitudes towards the use of a minoritized language in the public space. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 10:2 ► pp. 190 ff. DOI logo
Gubitosi, Patricia & Irina Lifszyc
2022. Lunfardo and political (dis)agreements in the public space. Language and Dialogue 12:1 ► pp. 12 ff. DOI logo
Gubitosi, Patricia & Paola Medina González
2022. Language-power relationship, linguistic identity and the struggle for survival: the case of Asturian in Oviedo, Spain. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies 19:1 ► pp. 34 ff. DOI logo
Gubitosi, Patricia & Paola Medina González
2023. Visibility and (re)vitalization. Language Problems and Language Planning 47:2 ► pp. 208 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 12 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue